How Far He Would Go
by kaotic312
Summary: Just how lazy is Shikamaru? Ask his wife. One-shot.


**Just for fun. And I still do not own Naruto:**

"Mama! Shinichu is stinky!" The little girl yelled from across the room.

Ino didn't even look up from the small costume she was sewing for her daughter's first flower festival. "Tell your father."

Tsunade leaned back happily, sipping her tea. "It's good to see you doing so well." She commented to her former student. "When I went to the coast little Arisa was just a lump in your belly, now look at her."

Ino nodded as she carefully snipped the thread and eyeballed the seam, nodding with satisfaction before moving on to the second sleeve. "It's good to have you back in the village, will you be staying longer this time?"

Tsunade shrugged. "I haven't decided. I needed to take an extended leave after retiring from being the Hokage. And the new Hokage didn't need me around, he needed to stand on his own two feet. Let people look to him instead of to me. Clear lines of authority and all that nonsense."

"Naruto is doing great." Shikamaru mumbled as he yawned while being dragged into the room by his five year old daughter, Arisa.

Ino nodded, thinking of their Hokage for the past few years. Naruto was doing a great job. Life here in Konoha was blooming with activity and a sense of contentment. She smiled.

"Are you sure he's mine?"

Ino sighed and let her smile disappear as Tsunade's hand froze with her tea cup half-way to her mouth. The blonde stared at her former medical student and raised one eyebrow.

"Yes." Ino told him quietly and continued on with her sewing, ignoring the glowering male staring down at their two year old son who was grinning from ear to ear and covered in mud.

Shikamaru shook his head. "He's too energetic to be mine. Into everything. Not lazy at all. You did spend that time with Naruto helping with the transition ..."

Ino sighed. "Genetics dear. Two blue eyed blondes can not make a brown eyed brunette baby."

Tsunade put down her tea cup and turned to look at Shikamaru and then back at Ino. "Are you ..." Then stopped as Ino raised her blue eyes at her and shook her head mutely.

"Shino has dark eyes and dark hair." Shikamaru leaned down, hands in his pockets as he peered into his son's face. "How do you feel about bugs, Shinichu?"

"It's not how he feels, it's how I feel about bugs." Ino said quietly, and continued with her sewing. "Besides the Aburame would have claimed him immediately if he'd been one of theirs."

Shikamaru grunted as Tsunade stared, dumbstruck by the oddity of the conversation.

"He's not mine. Last time I tried teach him shogi he ate three tiles." Shikamaru insisted. "Lee has lots of energy. And Shinichu has large eyes."

Tsunade sucked in a shocked breath, and looked back at Ino, waiting for the response.

"He can't be Lee's, Shinichu doesn't like the color green." Ino held up the little flower costume and reached for the shears, ready to cut out the flower petal collar.

Tsunade couldn't help herself. "Doesn't like green? He's two."

Ino shrugged. "And he won't even touch a green vegetable. Can't be Lee's."

The former Hokage shook her head as if that argument made no sense to her at all.

"Fine." Shikamaru grunted, then paused as if struck by a sudden thought. "You know ...Sasuke did come back to visit with Naruto about two years ago ...whoa!" He ducked as sewing shears passed right in front of his nose and embedded themselves in the wall next to his head. "Okay fine, not Sasuke either."

Ino nodded, letting her frown fade as she made a gesture for him to give her back the cutting shears. Shikamaru took them out of the wall and handed them to little Arisa who carried them back to her mother.

"Kiba! It has to be Kiba!" Shikamaru clucked his tongue at his wife, who was ignoring him as she started cutting the fabric. "Kiba was always covered in mud, refusing to eat healthy, and completely energetic! Shinichu has to be Kiba's!"

Ino looked at her husband coolly. "Stop it. You are not getting out of changing your son. Now, get to work! And he needs a bath too."

Shikamaru mumbled as he sighed and picked up the mud encrusted two-year old who squealed in protest and kicked his little feet trying to get away.

Tsunade looked at Ino after Shikamaru had left, clearly not sure how to ask the obvious.

Ino saved her the trouble. "He only gets like that when he has to change the baby. But he's better now, it was worse when Arisa was a baby. Back then he was nearly in panic mode."

"Oh." Was the only response Tsunade could offer.

"DEIDERA!"

Ino looked up, annoyed as she eyed her husband standing in the doorway looking triumphant. "What?"

"Shinichu likes making mud castles! Art! Deidera!"

Tsunade actually bit back a smile this time.

Ino sighed. "Genetics again."

Shikamaru slumped, looking dejected. "Right. Two blondes and all that."

"No." Ino picked up the cutting shears again, tossing them back and forth in her hand with a faint air of threat and malice. Shikamaru's eyes watched the shears carefully, ready to duck, as his wife eyed him. "Genetics. Like the fact that Deidera has been dead longer than we've been married. Idiot."

Tsunade chuckled as Shikamaru turned back toward the nursery, mumbling under his breath about how he was being picked on.

Ino turned back to her work, picking up the costume. "Arisa? Let's go try this on."

o.O.o.O.o.O

**Very short one-shot coming out of a late night conversation with a good friend while we laughed ourselves silly about the lengths Shikamaru would go to in order to avoid changing a stinky diaper. Hope you enjoyed!**


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